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LITERARY

Everything to do with letters

Powerful and moving novel about the price of freedom by Najat el Hachmi

Raw and moving is Catelan-Moroccan writer Najat el Hachmi's new novel, Monday We Will Be Loved. An impressive story about the meaning of true freedom, and the price you have to pay for it. 'Monday, Monday, Monday... Monday we will be different. Monday we will be loved.' Every week, young woman Naïma tries to... 

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Utrecht authors Koos, Mari and Urai receive C.C.S. Cronestipendia 2023

Falun Ellie Koos, Arja Mari and Max Urai will receive a C.C.S. Cronestipendium this year. This is a grant from the municipality of Utrecht for promising Utrecht authors. They will each receive 3,000 euros to enable their next publication. "A number of submissions stood out immediately because of the surprising addition the authors make to current Dutch fiction: in narrative voice,... 

Babs Gons, Photo by Anneleen Louwes

Poet Laureate Babs Gons on tour with 1,000 poets

On Sunday 24 September, Babs Gons will be installed as Poet Laureate in Utrecht. This is also the starting signal for a two-week tour of Gons through the Netherlands and Flanders, together with a thousand other poets. The poetry caravan '1000 Dichters' will travel by tour bus to a different city every day, to return to Utrecht on 7 October..... 

cover Friesland My Love by Oeds Westerhof.

One region, one love: Oeds Westerhof's political declaration of love

In Zutphen, I attended Jeroen den Herder's congenial small-scale cello festival. There, two young Portuguese students gave a lecture/recital on their research project on the music of fado singer and composer José Zeca Afonso, an important voice in the 1974 Portuguese Revolution. At home, I looked up that music. It turned out to be the perfect background when reading "Friesland, my... 

Salman Rushdie - Photo: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Salman Rushdie speaks at ILFU

Salman Rushdie will give his first interview in the Netherlands on 30 September during the ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) after the attempt on his life last year. Journalist Chris Keulemans and writer Abdelkader Benali will speak to Rushdie at TivoliVredenburg via a livestream connection about his new novel Victoria City and his extensive body of work. Rushdie last appeared live on stage in 2018 

Nietzsche's packed furniture. photo: author

Diary Weimar (2): what would Nietzsche have thought of it (or his sister)?

I had - in a previous house - a neighbour who gave a young tree in front of our apartment complex a bucket of water every day. He had a thing for trees, as he had brought back some Sequoia seeds from a trip to the US, back in the day. He had put these in the ground in various places. One near the house, and that one, because of possible... 

The BBC's bank in Manchester (photo by author)

After the #Zomergasten with Bibi Dumon Tak, the main question remains: how to proceed with books on TV?

Adriaan van Dis with an intensely coquettish Renate Dorrestein, who (rightly) got him on the ropes with a few well-aimed pussy remarks. This excerpt from 1991 opened Zomergasten 2023 #4, and it chopped. Nostalgia all around, and during those first minutes of Theo Maassen with animal and children's book author Bibi Dumon Tak, the bar was set high. Would Theo Maassen with this... 

Photo: Thomas, Sacha and Jos | Edit: Guy Vording

Theatre show 'Two old ladies' by Toon Tellegen at Boulevard Theatre Festival 

Theatre collective Thomas, Sacha and Jos creates performance about universal love After years of fruitful cooperation with master storyteller Toon Tellegen and several performances based on his work, theatre collective Thomas, Sacha and Jos will perform Two Little Old Ladies at this summer's Theatre Festival Boulevard. Tellegen's book consists of 43 love stories, each starring two little old ladies. Thomas, Sacha and Jos made a... 

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Nieuwe namen voor ILFU – ILFU vindt dit jaar plaats van 23 september t/m 7 oktober.

Het openingsweekeinde van het International Literature Festival Utrecht bestaat uit een optreden van Maggie Nelson, het NK Poetry Slam, de Utrechtse Boekenmarkt, de start van de 1000-Dichtersmarathon en de inauguratie van Babs Gons als Dichter des Vaderlands. In de twee weken daarna vinden optredens plaats van o.a. Philippe Claudel, Jeanette Winterson, Amitav Gosh en David van Reybrouck. Twee weken later… 

de genomineerde boeken

Nominaties bekend voor de Filter Vertaalprijs en Filter Vertaalprijs voor kinder-en jeugdboeken.

Naast de traditionele Filter Vertaalprijs voor de meest bijzondere vertaling van het jaar wordt er in 2023 voor het eerst een nieuwe, extra prijs gelanceerd, en wel voor vertaalde kinder- en jeugdboeken – met een aparte jury, een geheel eigen statuut en met een prijzengeld van € 10.000. Beide jury’s worstelden tijdens hun zoektocht naar de beste vertaling naar eigen… 

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1,000 poets sought for national poetry marathon

24 September to 7 October 2023: a two-week tour of 1000 poets and poetry readers along 13 cities in the Netherlands and Flanders, in the run-up to the 40th Night of Poetry. In the run-up to the 40th Night of Poetry, 1,000 poets will read poems in 13 different places in the Netherlands and Flanders. The poetry marathon '1000 Poets' will take place in... 

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14 June Action Day Screenwriters Everywhere: Dutch screenwriters and directors in solidarity with striking US colleagues

Op 14 juni 2023 sluiten het Netwerk Scenarioschrijvers van de Auteursbond en de Dutch Directors Guild zich aan bij de wereldwijde actiedag Screenwriters Everywhere. Hiermee steunen we de 11.500 leden van de Writers Guild of America West en Writers Guild of America East, die sinds 2 mei staken. Er zijn acties gepland in meer dan 20 landen. Scenarioschrijvers in de… 

ensemble Wuthering Heights. Photo: Steve Tanner

Glossy role for the bog in unprecedentedly perfect update of Wuthering Heights at Holland Festival

I can't resist mentioning it, because I think they were doing it for a reason, the dancers in the musical Wuthering Heights making really visible big rounds with their arms one time: this was a half-second reference to Kate Bush's world-changing 'windmill swings' in the music video to her legendary 1978 pop song. A subtle nod as in my... 

Brainwash Festival / Joy Hansson

Volle zalen voor katholieke cultuur van Nick Cave en Herman Finkers

Christelijke culturele tradities, zoals het Katholicisme, zitten in het verdomhoekje. Hoe komen ze eruit? Hoe je achtergronden qua gender, afkomst en overtuiging ook noemt, deze allemaal positief bezien helpt, met mededogen en humor; hoe mooi en grappig zijn al die verschillende mensen en uitingen! Dus schrijf ik nu met genoegen over twee personen die op de cultuurladder klommen, en net… 

Jeanette Winterson - fotograaf Sam Churchill Kamila Shamsie - fotograaf Mustafa Zain Daniel Schreiber - fotograaf Christian Werner David van Reybrouck - fotograaf Stefan Vanfleteren Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ - fotograaf Emmanuel Iduma

Eerste namen voor ILFU’s grote festivaldag Exploring Stories; Het festivalthema van ILFU 2023 is ‘What’s the story?’

Het ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) vindt dit jaar plaats van 24 september t/m 7 oktober, onder het motto ‘What’s the story?’. Tot het programma behoren vaste ingrediënten zoals de Utrechtse Boekenmarkt, het NK Poetry Slam, het YALFU (Young Adult Festival) en De Nacht van de Poëzie. Het hart van ILFU wordt op 30 september gevormd door de festivaldag ‘Exploring… 

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Night of Poetry celebrates 40th edition - Former Poet Laureate Babs Gons joins the Night editorial team

On 7 October, the 40th edition of the Night of Poetry will take place as the conclusion of the ILFU Festival. In the Grote Zaal of TivoliVredenburg, Ester Naomi Perquin and Piet Piryns will present, as always, about twenty poets and a handful of 'entr'actes'. Among the first confirmed poets' names are two veterans who were already there at the first Night in 1980,... 

Susan Neiman (Image provided by Publisher Lemniscaat)

Susan Neiman: 'I see the woke as people with good intentions and confused theory'

'People who consider themselves traditionally on the left don't want to criticise woke because they are afraid they are aiding and abetting the right, and they certainly don't want that. And yet they feel that there is something wrong, something not really left-wing about woke discourse. That's what I'm trying to untangle.... 

Flyer Storytelling festival

Theatre Kikker together with Utrecht partners presents the best stories from the city

Vertel! Storytellingfestival opent je blik naar de wereld om je heen. In samenwerking met Het Verhalenhuis en De Vertelacademie presenteert Theater Kikker op zaterdag 13 mei een unieke samensmelting van verhalen, muziek, culinaire hapjes, een inspirerende expositie en nog veel meer. Je luistert op deze dag naar de verhalen die onze stad rijk is. Kom naar Vertel! en maak kennis… 

Writer Richard Osinga ©Keke Keukelaar

A puzzle with time. Richard Osinga's cruel but also loving new novel 'Coin'

Some writers are at the forefront, others write their novels in the lee. Richard Osinga (51) belongs to the latter category. With each book, he gains in eloquence. Mint is the new shoot on the stem of his increasingly interesting oeuvre. At one point, Richard Osinga himself was a little too lazy. After his novel... 

Dutch-Romanian writer Stefan Popa ©Gaby Jongenelen

Stefan Popa's new novel: an exciting and tasty dish

In his new, fifth novel, writer Stefan Popa (1989) returns to Romania, which previously served as the setting for his debut novel Vanished Borders. The novel's protagonist is a 'half-breed', just like the writer, but the other way round. While Popa, is a son of a Dutch mother and Romanian father, protagonist Alex Petrescu, on the contrary, has a Romanian mother and... 

Writer Nhung Dam is increasingly embracing her Vietnamese roots. 'My background is also a gift.'

Writer and theatre-maker Nhung Dam (38) tried to be as Dutch as possible, but is increasingly embracing her Vietnamese roots. Because these are precisely what make her unique, she now realises, and offer a wealth of stories. Including for her second novel, Definition of Love. Two worlds Nhung Dam (38) more or less grew up in two worlds. Her cradle was in... 

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Winnaars Thérèse Cornips Stipendium 2023 bekend

De winnaars van het Thérèse Cornips Stipendium 2023 zijn bekend. Zij ontvangen ieder een geldbedrag voor het verder verwezenlijken van hun plannen op literair gebied. Het beschikbare budget van € 12.500 wordt over vijf projecten verdeeld. Gehonoreerde aanvragen Toneelvertaler Mike Sens ontvangt € 1.750  voor de voltooiing van zijn vertaling van Visions nocturnes, een stuk van de Franstalige Belgische schrijver… 

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Charlotte Köhler Prize 2023 for Peer Wittenbols

This year's Charlotte Köhler Prize, a triennial award for writers of prose, poetry or drama, has been awarded to Peer Wittenbols (1965). Wittenbols receives the €15,000 prize for his entire oeuvre and in particular for the youth-oriented play Trojan Wars (2020). The jury consisted of theatre scholar Sruti Bala, actor, writer and director Gable Roelofsen and... 

Author's photo - Niccolò Ammaniti

Niccolò Ammaniti on his new book and protagonist: 'I had actually fallen a bit in love with her'

In his new novel, Italian bestselling author Niccolò Ammaniti (56) wittily holds up a mirror to modern man. His protagonist, the wife of the Italian prime minister, is afraid of being blackmailed with a sex video. "I don't know if I would have the same courage as her in such a situation," he says. Storytelling fun With novels like I Pick You Up, I Take You and I... 

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Scenario industry awards presented: Silver Curly Tails for The Year of Fortuyn and El Houb

The Zilveren Krulstaarten were awarded on Saturday afternoon 25 March in Amsterdam to the writers of the best film and television scripts of 2022. Once started as a giants' prize due to the lack of a Golden Calf for screenplay, the Zilveren Krulstaarten have now become the Dutch professional awards for screenwriters. The winners are chosen annually by members of the Authors' Association's Screenwriters Network.... 

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